Veterans across Yorkshire & The Humber have been awarded grants from the Big Lottery Fund to make pilgrimages back to where they served during the Second World War. Over the past month, 22 of the region’s veterans have received a share of over £30,000 awarded from BIG’s Heroes Return 2 programme.

Amongst those receiving grants are John Parker from Rotherham who flew in 54 bombing raids with the RAF Bomber Command and George Buckle of York, who served as a Telegraphist with the Royal Navy Patrol Service.

John Parker from Rotherham used his grant to return to Poland and Denmark where he flew on bombing raids as a Flight Engineer with RAF Bomber Command 635 Squadron, based at RAF Downham Market in Norfolk. “The Polish people are marvellous, I’d only flown there on bombing raids. It was the furthest range the Lancaster bombers could reach on an eight hour round trip.”

John joined the RAF as soon as he could in 1941 at the age of 17 and three quarters. The 635 Squadron was a pathfinder unit and John’s Lancaster served as the master bomber, leading the way on four of the 54 bombing raids he flew on. John commented:  “The master bomber was considered the elite of the elite. As a flight engineer I had to help the pilot with the controls and throttles and to look after the fuel. We also had to throw out ‘windows,’ bundles of aluminium strips that upset the enemy radar.”

On one raid John’s Lancaster was badly shot. While attempting to land at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk with only two of the four engines functioning, the third engine failed.  The Lancaster crashed in a field, coming to a halt 50 yards from a white stone cottage. The pilot and John were injured and the wireless operator was killed. Though injured, help was on hand: “After we’d crash landed a women came out from the cottage with her best china to offer us cups of tea until more assistance arrived,” said John.

At the Downham Market base, John shared a hut with two other crews.  He said: “Sometimes you’d just close your eyes and when you opened them you’d realise one of the crews hadn’t come back. On one particular raid 97 aircraft were lost, more people lost their lives on that raid then they did in the entire Battle of Britain.”

Only three members of John’s crew are alive today and they keep in touch, meeting up when they can. John’s second wireless operator Ernie, still comes to stay with him. John regularly gives talks to local groups and signs copies of books about the RAF Bomber Command to raise money for an Air Force memorial fund.

George Buckle, of Heworth, York, has been awarded a grant for him and his wife to visit the Royal Navy Patrol Service Museum in Lowestoft.

The 88 year old signed up for the Royal Navy aged 19 in 1941 at York’s Blossom Street recruitment office. He first went to HMS Ganges in Ipswich for basic training and then to the Wireless School in Gloucester, where he was trained as a Telegraphist. “Although the Wireless School was in a Stately Home we had to stay in a tent,” George commented. He was recruited into the Royal Navy Patrol Service (RNPS) based at the ‘Sparrows Nest’ in Lowestoft.

The RNPS served all over the world in all theatres of the war and were mostly involved in minesweeping and anti-submarine work. When the German’s over ran Norway all the small boats, such as fishing boats and trawlers, were commandeered by RNPS to be used for mine sweeping.

George travelled with a crew to East London in South Africa to pick up two old Norwegian whaling boats that had been left behind, these were fitted out with guns and then sailed up to Mombassa where they were used as part of a number of convoys across to India. On occasions George’s ship picked up echos from U-Boats and depth charges were dropped. George said: “I was glad not to see a U-Boat, the boats I served on couldn’t move very fast.”

George also served onboard empty oil tankers that were taken up the Suez Canal to the Persian Gulf to fill up with oil and then back down the canal with fresh oil supplies.

George said: “Unlike the Royal Navy there wasn’t any real discipline in the Patrol Service, crews were mainly made up of fishermen and miners, there was no uniform. We were known as Churchill’s Pirates.”

“I was in the Irish Sea towards the end of the war where German U-Boats were demanding the catch of trawler boats. Undercover, some trawler boats were taken over by the Patrol Service and equipped with an anti tank gun. If any U-Boats approached our ship we were to blow a hole in them making it impossible for them to dive. My order if this happened was to radio in all the way to America to arrange an air strike.”  Luckily for George they never came across any.

George is using his grant to go to Lowestoft to visit the museum where a photo of him is still on display. In 1942 he was issued with a warm clothes kit in case they went up to Russia. George never used the kit as he ended up going to the sunnier climes of South Africa. He did however keep hold of a Navy issue blue scarf, which is still like brand new despite it being 67 years old. When George visits next March he is going to donate the scarf to the museum.

George was a member of the York Royal Navy Patrol Branch, which has now been disbanded as there are only four remaining members. The standard of the branch is on display at Eden Camp near Malton.  

Vanessa White, Big Lottery Fund Head of Region for Yorkshire & The Humber, said: “Our veterans risked their lives for their country 65 years ago, and we are delighted to support them to make pilgrimages to the places where they served. The Heroes Return 2 programme will ensure that the sacrifices made by the wartime generation are not forgotten. Veterans from across the region will be awarded grants to return to foreign battlefields and attend commemorative events over the next two years, and remember those comrades who did not return.”

Other veterans from Doncaster, Ilkley, Barnsley, Leeds, Hull, Boston Spa, Bradford, Thirsk and Selby have been awarded grants for commemorative trips across the world from Normandy to the Far East. To date, the Big Lottery Fund has awarded over £308,000 through its Heroes Return 2 programme in Yorkshire & The Humber, funding trips for more than 230 of the region’s Second World War veterans.

Launched to mark the historic 60th anniversary of D-Day in 2004, BIG’s first Heroes Return scheme awarded £16.6 million to over 39,000 veterans, spouses, widows and carers to fund commemorative visits to Second World War battlefields, cemeteries and other significant places across the world.

Heroes Return was the centre-piece of the Veterans Reunited programme including Home Front Recall which awarded £19.2 million to support UK-based group events and activities to commemorate those who contributed to the war-effort on the home front, and Their Past Your Future with an ongoing £9.6 million scheme funding a UK-wide schools and education programme to give young people the opportunity to learn first-hand from veterans about their experience of war.

Further Information

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours contact: 07867 500 572
HEROES RETURN 2 HELPLINE 0845 00 00 121
Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030
Textphone:  0845 6021 659

Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

Notes to editors

• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out half the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK since June 2004. The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £22 billion has now been raised and more than 300,500 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
• Heroes Return £17 million scheme provided funding to Second World War veterans, their wives or husbands, widows and widowers and, where required, their present-day carers to visit the overseas areas where the veterans saw active service.  By linking with activities funded through the Their Past Your Future scheme, Heroes Return is also helping to give young people a better understanding of the efforts and sacrifices made by veterans.
• Home Front Recall provided grants of between £500 and £20,000 for regional and local projects across the UK in 2004-2005 that commemorated the events of the Second World War and the contributions of different groups in society.  The scheme funded a very wide range of projects including special community days; reunions and exhibitions; recordings of the experiences of those who lived through the War; plays and pieces of creative artwork. In addition, the scheme funded a number of national grants to organisations such as the TUC to fund a range of commemorative activities.
• Their Past Your Future is a UK-wide education project led by a partnership of the Imperial War Museum, Museums, Libraries and Archives England, National Library of Wales, Northern Ireland Museum Council and Scottish Museums Council, supported by the Big Lottery Fund. The project aims to increase young people’s understanding and appreciation of the impact on people and places of conflict throughout the 20th century, including the Second World War. It also focuses on history, national identity and civic participation/responsibility through learning programmes, engaging with veterans and eyewitnesses of conflict, and with primary sources from UK museums, libraries and archives. The project was established in 2004 as part of Veterans Reunited, and concludes in March 2010.
• The project website at www.theirpast-yourfuture.org.uk includes a wide range of resources for schools to use to facilitate learning about the project themes as well as details of projects delivered by museums across the UK.